Incident du K 8 B à Bellechasse lors d'un vol d'entraînement non autorisé
Le 30 avril 1972, un planeur K 8 B piloté par un pilote inexpérimenté s'est écrasé près de Bellechasse, en Suisse. Le pilote, qui n'avait pas reçu l'autorisation ou l'instruction appropriée pour le vol, a rencontré des difficultés lors d'un lancement par remorquage. Le planeur est monté trop abruptement, interférant avec l'avion remorqueur, et a décroché après avoir largué le câble de remorquage. Le pilote a perdu le contrôle, entraînant un crash à environ 280 mètres de l'aérodrome. Le pilote a subi de graves blessures, et le planeur a été détruit.
- Aerotow initial climb: On 30 April 1972 the pilot began her first unauthorized conversion flight on K 8 B HB-831 on aerotow from Bellechasse runway 26 in light headwind.
- Glider climbs too high: Shortly after liftoff the glider climbed excessively high behind the towplane, hindering the towplane’s climb and creating an abnormally steep attitude.
- Inexperience on type: The pilot had low recent experience and no proper instruction or authorization on the K 8 B, leaving her unprepared for its pitch and trim characteristics.
- Trim adjustment attempt: Instead of applying strong forward stick, the pilot changed hands to adjust the trim forward while low over a field, but the glider continued to pitch up.
- Steep attitude and deviation: By about 100 m AGL the glider remained strongly nose‑up, drifted left out of towline alignment, and the pilot released the towline.
- Stall and spin entry: Immediately after release the glider, still at a high angle of attack, stalled, dropped left, and entered an uncontrolled left turn developing into about one and a half turns.
- Crash - serious injury: After approximately one and a half left turns the glider impacted a field about 280 m west of the airfield, seriously injuring the pilot and destroying the aircraft.